Vishal Bhardwaj’s ‘Haider’ is the hot topic at the Central Board of Film Certification’s office. The Shahid Kapoor starrer is the last film to be censored by CBFC’s suspended CEO Rakesh Kumar who is currently in judicial custody after being accused in a bribery case.

The film’s leading man famously got tonsured for the role and now Haider too has met with the scissors. The film has been passed with a UA certificate but only after 41 cuts. The details of the cuts are mentioned on the CBFC’s official website.

Some of the scenes removed as per CBFC’s directive include among others: the word `fu***d’, visuals of a burning body corpses piled into a truck Haider walking among corpses a wire inserted into a naked man a close up shot of an appendix surgery and a stone pelting incident.
Kumar along with the examining committee not only suggested the cuts but also reviewed the edited film. According to the rule book the examining committee cannot view the film after the cuts have been introduced and it’s brought back to the CBFC. That’s when the revising committee steps in.
When contacted Vishal who is currently in the US informed through his spokesperson, “The CBFC asked for seven cuts. The film was first submitted to the Board two months before the final edit. When the film came to the revising committee Vishal along with the film’s editor had made more than 35 cuts to tighten the film. These were not imposed by either the Board or the revising committee.”

However Nandini Sardesai senior board member who chairs the revising committee asserted that the film never came to them.”Kumar saw Haider twice and passed it with a UA certificate.Vishal has apparently agreed to the cuts. But I don’t understand why the revising committee was not approached.